Hello! I'm starting to plan our family road trip and wanted to get some ideas form the community on some route tips, and suggestions. We will be traveling in a well equipped Jeep Gladiator, and our Escapod trailer (actually picking it up on the way to Moab!) We will be In Moab, UT for about a week, then are planning to camp "Overland" our way back. Or at least through Utah and Colorado. We will have 7-8 days to get back to our home state of Pennsylvania. Below are some of the routes I would like to hit, but would love some ideas of connecting some of the destinations to stay off the highway whenever possible. Once we pass into Colorado via the Rimrocker is where I'm looking for the most effective way to cover this territory. Thanks!
Rimrocker trail to Montrose, CO
Imogene Pass to Telluride, CO
Possibly back up to Crested Butte via Kebler pass
Buena Vista, CO
Time permitting something around Garden of the Gods/ Colorado Springs
OK, this may go without saying, but keep in mind that Moab may be freakin' hot at that time.....so much so that if you don't have A/C or a really nice breeze it can be tough to sleep.
Rimrocker is a neat item to check off one's bucket list, but to be honest, the most remarkable thing about it is it's length. What I mean is that it's not nearly as grand as the trails you can do in both Moab and Ouray at each end. With a limited schedule, consider spending the 2 days you'd spend on Rimrocker and just drive straight to Ouray and do other trails such as Ophir, Corkscrew, Hurricane, California, Engineer, Cinnamon, Stony, etc. If you're interested we could plot you a route to work your way through some of the best CO has to offer in that area. If you do stick with Rimrocker then afterwards look at doing Last Dollar Road south to Telluride and start Imogene there and take it over to Ouray. You could continue east working your way through the passes, but I realized you probably don't want to trailer all those passes. If not that you could easily do both Ophir and Imogene as a loop and end up back in Telluride for your trailer. Let me know what you think. There are so many options here. [EDIT: If you're parking the trailer, your idea of Imogene to Telluride would probably be best and then return via Ophir.]
It has been a long time since I've done Kebler so I don't have any feedback for you there.
What are you interested in doing in Buena Vista? We'll have the 3rd Annual June Jam there earlier and June so I know a little about the area. It's not as amazing as Ouray and we mainly use it as an early season destination before the aforementioned 4wd roads open each year.
Garden of the Gods is a really neat attraction to be so close to Colorado Springs, but having just come from Moab you probably won't be all that impressed.
Having moved here myself from the east, one thing that took some getting used to was just how big these western states are. Put a mountain range down the middle and you don't get anywhere in a hurry. I mention this because it's easy to burn up a lot of your time trying to travel between attractions because there is no direct route. Just keep this in mind while planning. Sometimes it's better to use that time to further explore an area that you already in instead of hastily embarking to another.
If you have any interest in meeting local members, we can try to arrange a meetup and run some trails and/or camp a night or so together. No hurt feelings if you're not interested. Just let us know how we can help.
